What is a CMS ?

CMS stands for Content Management System,

It is a platform that offers a back-end system that allows publishing, editing, and modifying content from a central page. OK, a short explanation for the newbies is in order here. When the first websites were published, they were created as simple interconnected “static” pages. These pages were designed by a webmaster and linked to each others in order to allow the visitor to jump from one page to another. It was an efficient way to create content and the principle is still in use in modern website. But static pages have a major limitation ! They can only be modified by a webmaster or a computer savvy user. They are coded in a complex language called HTML, not accessible to the final user.

This made the fortune of many web design companies and freelance webmasters but limited the information the public was receiving. Only major corporation, businesses or governments were willing to pay the price to keep their websites updated. A more “user friendly” system became urgent and developers from around the world started working on developing tools that would allow the user himself to interact with the pages he is visiting. The web 2.0 was born and many systems flourished. The principle of creating pages and linking them together remained with one big difference: The webmaster would build only a template of the website (call it the foundations), and the information will be filled, in real time, from a database. The database being easily accessed through a user friendly back end system (CMS), any user with the proper access can modify and update the website. So how much does a CMS cost, which one to choose and how does it work? In the past ten years, many communities of developers gathered around few systems and devoted their time and knowledge to develop, maintain and improve them. Some became very specialized and are now commercial (paid), and others remained in the open source community and are free. Large corporations and businesses will choose to purchase commercial systems as they are usually more specialized and offer assistance and options not available in the free platforms. But this doesn’t mean that the open source platforms are basic or limited. Some of the biggest websites in the world are built with these free open source CMS.

The most popular are WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Magento… Businesses are not forgotten and they can build very powerful online shops with all these CMSs. Once the platform chosen, the webmaster will install it on the distant server and create the structure / template (look & feel) of the website. Then users will be created and assigned to the back end (CMS) and they will be responsible for filling the content. A CMS is basically a simple interface with very clear information allowing the user to type any information he needs and insert photos, videos… It usually resemble a word processing software or a webmail. We tested many CMS (Contact Management System) and eCommerce platforms, and recommend WordPress. This doesn’t mean that it is the best platform, but that we rather find it the most complete, easy to learn and use on a daily basis. If you have any questions or would like more detailed or technical information, do not hesitate to contact us.

We are passionate about our work and we will gladly answer your questions.